Thursday, April 23, 2015

Why School Reform Alone is Destined to Fail

Our drug laws, our swollen prison population, and our entire criminal
justice system needs to be addressed before young people in this
society, especially those growing up in struggling families and
communities, can realize their potential. Education reform alone will
not work. Efforts to place the entire burden of uplift on schools will
inevitably lead to demonization of teachers and a desperate attempt to
privatize education which will make matters much much worse. The tunnel
vision of school reformers, and their critics, has to be challenged. We
need to radically transform law enforcement, raise wages, and create
more affordable housing if we want to see true upward mobility in this
society. Only then can schools play the role we all want them to in
advancing opportunity.